AHouse as Sleep + Sanhe House, Nanjing, China (under construction), 2003- Tome, any type of architecture, no matter what its function, is @ house. | only design houses, notarchitecture. Houses are plain, especially those designed by anonymous persons. They always maintain some sort of interesting relationship with true existence and life. Architecture isa heavy word. If “house” is the initial prototype of all kinds of architecture, and a house is turned into architecture, it means that people have attached more meanings to it than can be expressed. What | am focusing on is how to present these excessively heavy themes ina more relaxed way. As an architect who grew up in China, I find the most interesting aspect of Chinese tradition to be this relaxed manner. To me, all Chinese buildings can be grouped into one type, no matter whether they are urban or rural, residential, palace, temple, office, school, workshop, jall—they are all transformations of the residential courtyard house. There is no qualitative difference between common residential houses and monumental buildings. Another impor- tant type is the garden, a seemingly casual transformation of the courtyard house that centers on an interest in natural hills, trees, and waters. Chinese gardens do not mimic nature's forms or patterns from the human standpoint, but rather echo the pleasurable experiences people derive from natural hills and bodies of water. The houses are thus interwoven with natural elements such as stones, ponds, streams, trees, and flowers, which then in turn influence the house's spatial layout. The constructed elements and natural ones do not exist independently but rather shape together an experience that appeals to the senses of those entering, This is similar to Chinese landscape paintings, which never depict the visual image statically, but rather convey a perception of the experience of traveling amidst real landscapes of natural beauty, accompanied by memories and imagination. This means the depiction is always about our continuous experience of the world. Either a garden or ® painting is just a temporary pause. Chinese gardens are houses in which the human body has an infinite experience of the ‘atural laws. | am able to obtain this kind of experience mainly through my hands, by depicting what | see with a pencil, besides traveling in nature, observing, practicing calligraphy every ay. drinking tea, chatting with friends, and listening to music played by string instruments. This kind of depiction is directly related to my bodily experience and is more accurate and fast. ‘than computer rendering. It was necessary for the kind of relaxed design method | am talking about here, because everything came naturally from the perception of nature; drawing was not too difficult. This is because what | draw are those things | am interested in, not the Important things. In Chinese philosophical terms, the word “interest* always points to ature. The first of these sketches is for the house I called “Sanhe House” (three combined ‘houses), This was the first time | designed a real house. It was interesting that | only spent fre hour drawing it. It was quite relaxed, but, then again, | had spent fifteen years imagining It ‘drew itin winter 2003, and construction on its not completed yet,Building a Vibrant, Diverse World 2 Klangshan Campus, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China (second phase), 2004-2007 This is the largest project I've ever designed—within six years, on a site with an area of around 533,333 square meters, encompassing a hill, wo streams, and over thirty buildings. The second project phase, for the south campus, contains thirteen large buildings and ‘two small ones; every building is different, but belongs to one of four types. It was like an encyclopedic method of design. If itis true that an architectural type can't be invented, the Chinese architectural type | designed must be from my memories, similar with the writing of Ala recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust. The recalling of memories started from those neglected details, such as the time | was drinking tea with a friend under the deep ‘eaves of a house and it was raining. The first sketch of the second project phase for the ‘campus actually was done during a conference, in spring 2004. It was drawn on a matchbox; the image was like dozens of ships anchoring at the foot of Xiangshan Hill. The box has. been lost. I tried to build a diverse world as a resistance to the uniform world. But | also wanted to avoid the kind of singularity that comes from a design by a single architect, or even the inevitable singularity when buildings are designed by several architects together. Anonymous diversity might be designed by time; no human being could do that. | tried anyhow. The idea for the layout of the second phase of the campus was essentially a series of small courtyards, corners, and under-eave areas, where several teachers and students would be chatting and discussing. One listener was often neglected—Xiangshan Hill. | tried to maintain a con- tinuity that was quite close to nature by using freehand drawing, while also stimulating the diversity. Things that can’t be achieved with the brain might be achieved by the actions ‘of man’s hands or body. At least Zhuangzi, the Chinese philosopher, believed so 2,000 years ‘ago. By drawing by hand again and again, | could feel the same.Memories, Dream, Time 3 Ningbo History Museum, Ningbo, China, 2003-2008, The Ningbo History Museum was the most difficult project | have was typical for contemporary China: the original villages had all been torn dows, moe fields had been evened out, and the closest buildings were more than 200 meters sua, there was no cue to follow. How to recall people's memories and spirits? | decided to denon shill Tis area has 8 2,000-year tradition of hill and water paintings, As the sketch gradually took shape, the image of avllage emerged, There used to be thirty beautiful tradioner vilages here, When | started the design, only half were left and the others were uines, decided to collect the materials from the ruins and use them to build this new museum se that the vanished memory, the haptic feeling, and the time past would be collected and preserved The design took a long time to do. The initial design was done over and over again several times within two years. Besides drawing, drinking green tea helped me to think; | drank more ‘ever done. The site chosen and more tea and the tea tasted increasingly bitter.A Picturesque House Vilage" which intigued me Tem thea Sia oesee eee ©6100 approvedtoo nasal ‘deadline. | had drawn nothing. | just drank tea, met with Friends, and did Chinese calligraphy. | also looked at many traditional landscape paintings ‘elated to this region. By chance, | found a painting from the seventeenth century t depicted the lifestyle of rural scholars, A path twisted its way deep into a hollow space formed by trees, which also implied the depth of thoughts. There was a peasant reading a book by the side of the path. His line of vision was solely from left to right, uninterested in the splendid world outside. That hollow space impressed me, because it was formed by groups of trees. | could see the strong lines in the vague woods, half natural and haif artificial. They shapea ‘@ shading space on a thin two-dimensional sheet of paper. | almost felt the coolness the space offered in that hot summer. There was no hierarchical difference in this ever-deeper space. Nor was there an important goal atthe end. It was enough to sit there and listen to the sounds of nature. My vision cut an idea directly out of the painting, resulting in an isometric space of 15-meter width, 50-meter length, 19-meter height. A 15-meter height was unnecessary, since there would be trees 10 meters in height. In thi 1 yy building. My hand wanted to put it down on paper immediately. leven in this way, I saw mi gave the building a name: Luxuriantly Green Shading,iter for the Xiangshan Can Pus, Hangzhou, Ching done with very limited time left, the preeidor syne anata was ike the second-phase buildings, a transformation ofthe ‘combined seervere nea the design period to be so long. [After four years, the design was re-launched and my idea had changed. My sketches depicted six buildings with a continuous change and containing four types. Diversity was the theme. Then, after another year, I decided to use rammed earth for all construction. ‘The significant change in material finally led to the overturning of the origina design. Taking season, a timber roof of over 100 meters appeared on into consideration the long the building. The rammed earth method of construction especially emphasized simple walls jpression especially emphasizes implicit poetry. Therefore at ick tiles. The general impression of the oft But the Chinese way of ex - 1ese elements would be covered with Chinese bia hole ene Id be tiles, From there, three paths would separ im the second floor, oF the rooftop. People One could enter the building IST aquence of surprising feelings in various segments and would be invited to experience a s in bt vechatin, finally enter into a very quiet bedroom with an atmoseh eeea Garden and a Reading Garden Tea House at Linyin Buddhist Temple, Han, \azhou, ; Buddhist Institute Library of Hangzhou, Hangehou ora a cesion process), 2008- ‘angzhou, China (stil in design process), 2011- ike drinking tea and reading books, They are my two favorit things. be commissioned with the projects for gardens for tea and books forthe nex Temple. Lingyin Temple is located on a hil atthe edge of the ey of Hanestew renee there and drink tea with the Buddhist monks, They invited me todo these twe proloce, but we rarely talked about the design when we drank together. Itold them | wouldn't ot rthe designs were simply a replication of the traditional Chinese buildings. They smiled and said, =You can do as you like.” We never talked about anything significant when we drank together We just chatted casually. As the days went by they rarely pushed me to hurry up. The tea house was designed over the course of two years, and I did the design twice. It took more then a year for the project to be approved. | told them that if they didnt start construction, | would re-do the design again, because my feeling had changed. The design of the library had already been finished for two years, too, and | had done it twice. Now Iam having the impulse todo ita third time. The gardens of tea and books: can'tremember how many times have traveled there. ighted to juddhist LingyinFee ge civtet>